FORT COLLINS, Colo., Oct. 12— Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who was kidnapped, robbed and pistol-whipped, died here today, five days after he was rescued from a Wyoming ranch where he had been left tied to a fence for 18 hours in near-freezing temperatures.
His death, announced at the Poudre Valley Hospital here, fanned the outrage that followed word of the attack, spawning vigils, producing calls for Federal hate-crimes legislation from President Clinton and fueling debates over such laws in a host of Western states, including Wyoming, that have resisted them.
In places from Denver to the University of Maryland, people turned out to mourn the soft-spoken 21-year-old who became an overnight symbol of deadly violence against gay people after he was found dangling from the fence by a passerby.
Russell A. Henderson, 21, and Aaron J. McKinney, 22, were charged with attempted murder and are expected to face first-degree murder charges that could bring the death penalty. Their girlfriends, Chasity V. Pasley, 20, and Kristen L. Price, 18, were charged as accessories.
more...COMMENTARY: Remembering Matthew Shepard
Twelve years ago today, Matthew Shepard passed away, six days after been beaten and tortured and left to die after being tied to a fence in a desolate field near Laramie, Wyo.
He was 21 and a student at the University of Wyoming. He was targeted because he was gay.
Shepard’s slaying stunned most Americans and indeed many folks around the world. His mother, Judy Shepard, became a tireless crusader for hate crime laws and an ally of the LGBT community.
Congress did not pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act until Oct. 22, 2009. President Barack Obama signed the act into law on Oct. 28, 2009.
Today, as we reflect on the horrors that were inflicted on Shepard simply because he was gay, we must somberly pause to recognize that homophobia is still very much a part of our lives. We must not get complacent in our fight for equality, either here in America or abroad, where millions of LGBT people live in fear for being who they are.
Just this month in New York, a 30-year-old man and two teenagers in the Bronx were beaten, tortured and sodomized simply for being gay.
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